DRY ‘SMASHES’ PAIN BARRIER TO BAG BRONZE

DAY one of the athletics. And Team Scotland have already bagged the honour of best medal celebration on the Gold Coast. No wonder. Given everything Mark Dry had endured to claim a dramatic bronze in the hammer with his final throw — an effort he unashamedly described as ‘by far the best of my career’ — he was perfectly entitled to get a little unhinged. Double hip surgery that left him desperately short of training, ‘smashing’ painkillers just to get through yesterday, a radical rethink of his throwing action the night before his competition, loss of funding and some dark inner doubts… this guy has put up with plenty. When marathon man Callum Hawkins described his 30-year-old Scotland team-mate as ‘one tough b ****** ’, he wasn’t exaggerating. Emulating his third-placed finish from Glasgow 2014 left Dry roaring with joy. Repeatedly. First when he nailed his final twirling, hurling effort to land the hammer 73.12 metres out, elevating him from fourth to third in the standings. Then when English rival Taylor Campbell blew his last chance to nick a medal. And finally when the precious medal had been hung around his neck on a day when England’s Nick Miller took gold and Australia’s Matthew Denny silver. Struggling to describe his emotions, with the adrenaline still numbing any pain, Dry said: ‘It’s hard to explain. Since the Olympics, I got kicked off funding and had two hip reconstructions. I know it’s not the best distance of my career but it’s by far the best throw of my career. ‘I’m a fighter. I was here to fight. I knew it was going to be tough. It was a hell of a competition. The medals kept switching around. ‘I can’t believe how I felt in Glasgow and I just can’t believe I can feel like that again. I just thought I’d never feel anything like it. ‘Sitting at work and carrying on with everything else, being able to come out and compete… sometimes you doubt things: “Will I ever get back to this after surgery? Will I put it down like I did before?”. All the guys on the team know about the surgery, they know my back blew up the other week. I’ve got discs popping out. My back is a mess, my hip is a mess. ‘I was on crutches for eight weeks. I couldn’t throw until December, January. I was doing some turns then. ‘Both surgeries were the same. They took the ligament out in the first surgery. I’ve got no cartilage left, my movement was all over the place. ‘I’ve not been able to practise because I knew I’d blow my hip up before I got here. ‘I’m desperate to get to a doctor really quickly now. I’m in bits. The adrenaline is keeping me going. I’ve been smashing pain killers for the last three weeks.’

Heroes: John Greechan — Page 69